Vladimir Nabokov Quotes

“A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle...”

“A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist.”

“Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.”

“Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.”

“For I do not exist: there exist but the thousands of mirrors that reflect me. With every acquaintance I make, the population of phantoms resembling me increases. Somewhere they live, somewhere they multiply. I alone do not exist.”

“I mean, I have the feeling that something in my mind is poisoning everything else.”

“I think it is all a matter of love; the more you love a memory the stronger and stranger it becomes.”

“I was weeping again, drunk on the impossible past.”

“Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.”

“Let all of life be an unfettered howl.”

“Let all of life be an unfettered howl. Like the crowd greeting the gladiator. Don't stop to think, don't interrupt the scream, exhale, release life's rapture.”

“Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.”

“Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.”

“My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.”

“Our imagination flies – we are its shadow on the earth.”

“Some might think that the creativity, imagination, and flights of fancy that give my life meaning are insanity.”

“The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.”

“Curiously enough, one cannot read a book; one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, and active and creative reader is a rereader.”

“Literature was not born the day when a boy crying 'wolf, wolf' came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying 'wolf, wolf' and there was no wolf behind him.”

“All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each other; hopelessly, I should add, because that frenzy of mutual possession might have been assuaged only by our actually imbibing and assimilating every particle of each other's soul and flesh; but there we were, unable even to mate as slum children would have so easily found an opportunity to do so.”

“And presently I was driving through the drizzle of the dying day, with the windshield wipers in full action but unable to cope with my tears.”

“And she was mine, she was mine, the key was in my fist, my fist was in my pocket, she was mine.”

“And the rest is rust and stardust.”

“He broke my heart. You merely broke my life.”

“Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece.”

“I am sufficiently proud of my knowing something to be modest about my not knowing all.”

“I knew I had fallen in love with Lolita forever; but I also knew she would not be forever Lolita.”

“I need you, the reader, to imagine us, for we don't really exist if you don't.”

“I shall be dumped where the weed decays, And the rest is rust and stardust.”

“If a violin string could ache, i would be that string.”